Wednesday, December 10, 2014

People from New Jersey are Lazy

There have been some really beautiful mapped visualizations of New York City taxi data. These three OpenHeatMap aren't them. However, although they might not be the prettiest maps, they still reveal some interesting patterns in how New Yorkers travel by taxi, how much they tip and where people travel from.

This Laziest and Furthest-Traveling heat-map (pictured) visualizes how far people travel in New York from different pick-up points. The map appears to reveal a distinct pattern, in that the further west you are in New York then the lazier you are. People in New Jersey seem to take the shortest taxi rides and those in Queens the longest. The exception to this rule seems to be in the southern Financial District, where cab passengers are also keen on longer journeys.

The Best and Worst Tippers heat-map reveals that those starting their journeys in the Financial District are also the biggest tippers. This may have something to do with all the high earners working in Wall Street. Alternatively it may just be that those who take the longest journeys end up paying the largest tips.

The NYC Taxi Trips heat-map shows the locations in New York with the most taxi pickups. This reveals that transport hubs are among the most popular places to catch a cab. For example, LaGuardia Airport and Grand Central Station are distinct hot-spots on this map.

A far prettier map of New York taxi data is the NYC Taxi Holiday Visualization.This map visualizes taxi traffic from JFK
and LGA airports during the 2013 holiday season (Nov 15th to December
31st).

The NYC Taxi Holiday Visualization
animates taxi journeys from New York's airports over the course of a
month and half. As the animation plays you can view the animated tracks
of thousands of individual cab journeys taken from JFK and LGA airports
to all parts of the city.

While the animation plays out on the map the side-panel keeps a running
total of the number of taxi trips taken from each of the airports'
terminals. A bar graph at the bottom of the map also reveals the number
of taxi journeys taken on each day. The graph reveals the drop in
flights during Thanksgiving and a distinct rise in traffic after the
holiday weekend as people fly back into NYC, presumably after visiting
family outside of the city.

The map animates one New York taxi's route over the course of a day.
As the animation plays the taxi's position is shown by a yellow circle
map marker. All the passenger journeys are added to the map with a blue
polyline. While the animation plays the map also keeps a running total
of the cab's total number of passengers, fares and tips received.

Once you have viewed a day in the life of this New York taxi you can
choose from another one of thirty cab journeys mapped over 24 hours.

Hubcab
is a mapped visualization of 170 million taxi trips over one year in
New York City. Using the map it is possible to view all pickup and
drop-off points in the city and to view the number of trips taken
between two separate locations.

Locations that were used as taxi pickup points in the city are shown as
yellow dots on the map and drop-off points are shown as blue dots. It is
also possible to refine the results displayed on the map by time of
day.

You can view the number of taxi journeys between two different locations
by dropping two markers on the map. After you place the markers on the
map you can see the number of taxi journeys taken in one year in both
directions between the two locations. You can even refine the results by
time of day to explore when the most journeys between the two points
are made at different times of the day.